I stopped to take a few shots and then while I was looking to try to shoot the Brant out past the flats, the eagle starts to fly! Someone said something and I turned around to get a shot of him passing by. He swooped down and tried to pick a little male Bufflehead out of the ditch next to the dyke.

After some time on his pole, he came in for a last pass. He was like a low level bomber hugging the contours of the dyke - probably only a few feet off the ground. He was definitely looking for a stealth attack (too close to the ground and too fast - all my shots of this ended up with nicely focused grass and a blur for a bird). The duck was wise to this one too... a quick submerge and it was safe again. The eagle returned to his pole.

At this point the duck flew off and I continued my walk. Apparently hunting is a lot harder than the adult eagles make it look. It seems it just wasn't that little Bufflehead's day to be dinner. I hope you enjoyed the hunt vicariously with me

love the saw-whet owl. Twice while working in the bush (different locations and years). We had a saw-whet just follow us around for almost the whole day. It was as if it was wondering what we were doing. Beautiful little bird!

Had the flickers nest in the Alder for 3 years! Saw them raise 4 chicks each time and one year was even home when they all flew out of the nest. Fist just took off, Second pretty much the same, Third almost hit the house and landed on the roof, while the fourth took it's sweet time and when it did. It just hit the ground. I chased it around and placed it back into the nest. Didn't want any part of that. Spent the next little while on a branch, then just jumped down to the ground. One of the parents were near by and was constantly calling to it. It spent the night and the two following days in the garden under the shrubs. No idea if it flew away, but it was gone and I found no feathers anywhere. Since then they come back every year, think about nesting but them just fly away. Personally I think it has something to do with the housing development that is now behind us, but who knows

I saw a ring-necked pheasant out on Westham Island the other day, but neglected to stop and shoot him Flickers are such beautiful birds... The most formal looking of the woodpeckers IMHO. It would have been cool to see the Flickers nest building and the chicks fledging! Too bad about the change in neighbourhood